PDP goofed, Obaseki did not use school compound for rally, says APC

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State has described as a lie, the claim by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the state’s governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, used a public school as venue for the recent tour of some wards in the state.

The Publicity Secretary of the APC in the state, Mr. Chris Azebamwan, said: “Our attention has been drawn to the lie by the fragmented Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Chris Nehikhare, who accused Governor Godwin Obaseki, of using a public school compound as venue for the thank you visit to members of the APC at some wards.”

Azebamwan explained that in the news report published on Naija Center News, an online news site, Mr. Nehikhare alleged that the Obaseki-led APC government acted in breach of its own policy by organising a thank you rally at a public school, after placing a ban on the use of public primary and secondary schools for social events in the state.

“In the most hypocritical manner and with total disrespect to Edo people, Governor Godwin Obaseki led APC government, is now using the prohibited public school fields for his so called thank you rally” Nehikhare was quoted as saying in the news report.

But the state APC scribe debunked the claim and said that “the Edo State APC is aghast at the ease with which the PDP is applying its last breath in the propagation of falsehood in the state as it struggles desperately to come to terms with its new reality of an obscure party that is ready for decommissioning.”

Azebamwan maintained that at the said rallies, Governor Obaseki was treated to a warm and carnival-like reception everywhere he went, across several local government headquarters and stressed that “None was held at a public school.”

He further said that the videos and photographs of the tour of some wards have been broadcast severally and printed in newspapers and magazines in national and local media. “The contents are the same and there is no media content of the governor at a public school during the tour.”

“We thought that after defeating the PDP at the polls and subsequently at the courts, the sinking party will think of a civilised way to manage its new status as a depleted and insignificant opposition party.  To add bare-face lying to its beleaguered status and its several baggage such as its notoriety for impunity, grand looting and insensitivity to the plights of the weak and downtrodden is the height of irresponsibility.”

According to the state APC Publicity Secretary, “the fact that Governor Obaseki is a man of rules, law and order cannot be controverted. This can be verified by his administration’s policies that have since rid bus stops and locations in Benin City of chaos, which many people thought was impossible before now. So it is laughable to even imagine that the same governor, whose rising profile in public administration has caught the attention of world leaders can break his own rules.”

He advised the PDP that “the resort to barefaced lies is clearly not a strategy to regenerate a dead political idea like the PDP.  Truthfulness and constructive criticism is the way to go.”

For the editors of the story at Naija Center News, Azebamwan urged them to be more professional, circumspect and investigate claims by anyone “and if possible err on the part of caution rather than rushing to publish an unverified word-of-mouth claim by a party like the PDP with its huge credibility crisis.”